Tomasz Chmielewski
2005-Feb-01 19:53 UTC
[Samba] folder redirecting for non-roaming users - is it reasonable?
Hello, I have non-roaming users (that is, they have their own PC / place where they sit and they don't change it). They use roaming profiles though - mainly because the profile is uploaded to the server, and then uploaded as a backup somewhere else. Now one of our IT staff is forcing the idea that these non-roaming users should have mad folder redirecting (that is, keep My documents and other folders on a server). There are some contras: - lost connectivity to the server and user can't work anymore, - users' "computer experience" will be generally slower - some of the users have 100 MB data in My documents, - sometimes user can loose data if a program has an open document from the server, the connectivity is lost, and program can't handle it, - some of the users use a common login and password (it's sort of public services institution - which means if student A has some data in My documents (which is on the server), student B can see it/delete it (as it's also on the server and they use the same login/password) as well as a few pros: - if there is a problem - for example, profiles are not being uploaded to the server after user logged out - we know about it immediately, because the user calls and complains - which means we don't backup something that is out of sync (users keeps fresh up-to-date data on his/her PC; and we back up an outdated roaming profile which is on the server) - we can actively fight against viruses: now a virus scanner scanns user profiles on the server, but even if it detects a virus and removes it, it appears again (as it is still on user's PC); with profiles kept partially on the server, this would not be the case? What do you think? Should we use folder redirecting for non-roaming users which have their own PCs, or not? Tomek